About Us

Finwise is a specialist advisor for Tech Startups & Scaleups that are seeking to raise Seed to Round A financing from 500K to 10 million Eur.

Finwise focuses on ‘investable’ early stage Tech companies that can usually demonstrate:

Our Mission

Our mission is to ease access to early-stage financing for entrepreneurs by connecting them to the right investors. By creating long-term partnerships between both worlds we want to contribute to economic growth and prosperity.

Our Values

Honesty and Transparency

Our reputation is our sole trademark. We believe the human aspect is of the utmost importance in these transactions. Our approach is built on respect and trust.

Client always comes first

We are 100% focused on defending your interests and will go the extra mile to get the best outcome. Understanding your background and aims is crucial to get to the best possible transaction. We make sure you can concentrate on the day-to-day running on our business while we get things done for you.

Internationalism

An international mindset is what differentiates us from those who unconsciously see everything through the eyes of their own culture. We believe bridging cultures is important in successful dealmaking.

Our Team

Patrick Soetens

– Founder & Managing Director

Patrick Soetens has 25 years of experience in finance (banking, asset management, portfolio management, financial markets, wealth mgt). Apart from investor experience he gained startup experience as CEO of a new online Swiss bank entity of Belgian online broker and fintech pioneer Keytrade Bank. He was its CEO for almost 8 years during which the business grew from a startup entity to a fully fledged bank.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Business & Finance and a Master in Corporate Finance.

Eddy Van Cutsem

– Director

Eddy has a depth of management and director experience within the European insurance/reinsurance sector. He was managing director of Royal Bank of Canada’s reinsurance company in Ireland from 2001 until 2014. Prior to working in Ireland he worked in Switzerland and Belgium for the large Belgian banking and insurance group Bacob/Artesia. He was one of the founders of the Dublin International Insurance & Management Association (DIMA) in 1990 and served on its board for many years. He has been Chairman of the Board of KPN Insurance Company DAC.

Since 2014 he is an independent consultant offering strategic advice in risk management, governance, international regulation and was in this capacity involved in several projects related to the insurance and financial services sector.

Thomas Desimpel

– Syndicate Partner

Thomas is a succesful angel investor (2017-2022) turned solo GP in 2022, backed by three silent partners (Nicolas D, Charles D, Axel D). He already realised two exits, of which one portfolio returner.

Koen De Lombaert – MD MBA

– Advisor

Koen De Lombaert is a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from KU Leuven and holds an MBA from John Hopkins University He is based in Silicon Valley since 2014 and is founder of StudyPages, a leading platform aimed at accelerating and improving clinical trials. He advises Finwise on MedTech, helps our clients with US market entry and the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

Sam Hunt

– Senior Consultant CFO Services

Sam is a Chartered Accountant and has 14 years’ across functional experience in scaling and supporting technology companies. Sam has strong interest in supporting growth stage technology companies; he has previously acted as CFO of two venture equity backed technology companies leading key areas such as fundraising, financial operations, administration and legal. He has extensive experience in capital raising, business planning, financial modelling and refinancing.

Matthias Isler

– Senior Consultant Fractional CTO Services

Matthias is a passionate entrepreneur based in Zürich and is a software engineer with more than 15 years of experience in online business and web technology; He helps companies build and scale their digital products and businesses. He is specialized in the setup and management of high-performance remote engineering teams and can help with IT recruitment needs. As an entrepreneur, he has been involved in building a number of companies and was co-founder of “GetYourLawyer”, a matching SaaS solution for lawyers which he sold to Ringier Axel Springer in 2019.

Bob Eck

– Senior Consultant Fractional CMO Services

Bob Eck brings three vectors of experience to Finwise – as CMO in a variety of industries, as senior agency leader working on big, global brands, and as start-up entrepreneur with four starts and two exits. He started his career in brand management with Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, his hometown. After working in London and NYC, leading business units for Saatchi & Saatchi, he moved to Belgium, pivoting to marketing consulting, where he has helped build businesses, brands and reputation for the past 12 years. He has broad marketing experience in e-bikes (Cowboy employee #2), healthcare/pharma, multi-unit food retail chains, financial services, telecommunications and FMCG.